MATERNAL LABOR SUPPLY AND CHILDRENS COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENT

This paper analyzes the relationship between maternal labor supply and children's cognitive development, using a sample of three- and four-year-old children of female respondents from the 1986 National Longitudinal Surveys Youth Cohort (NLSY). Maternal employment is found to have a negative impact when it occurs during the first year of the child's life and a potentially offsetting positive effect when it occurs during the second and subsequent years. Our findings suggest that maternal employment throughout a child's first three or four years would have no net effect on the child's cognitive ability.